January 11, 2000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday there had been a deterioration in China's human rights performance and it would back a resolution critical of Beijing at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March.

State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters: "The goal is to shine the international spotlight directly on China's human rights practices," and referred to restrictions on freedom of speech, dissent and religion.

The decision, sure to anger China's communist leaders, was made as Sino-U.S. relations have been gradually improving after last year's bombing of China's embassy during a NATO attack on Belgrade and allegations of Chinese nuclear spying. Rubin said the Chinese government had been informed on Monday.

"The United States will introduce a resolution on China's human rights practices at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights when it meets in Geneva in March. The decision to go forward with this resolution at the commission is based on the fact that the government of China's human rights record has continued to deteriorate," Rubin said at a regular news briefing.

"Over the past year, the government of China intensified its crackdown on political dissent, initiated a campaign to suppress the Falun Gong (spiritual movement) and intensified controls on unregistered churches and on the political and religious expression of ethnic minority groups, especially Tibetans," he said.

Washington attempted to push a critical resolution at the Geneva commission last year, but it failed to attract European support and was quashed. In 1998 the United States, citing improvements in China's rights record, did not support such a resolution, but it had done so in previous years.